Using Pickling Tubs

Pickling tubs, or buckets, are used for making tsukemono and are widely available in kitchen-supply stores. They can be bought in a variety of sizes, are made of food-grade plastic and so are suitable for beer brewing. I have two 30-liter containers.

By itself, it can be used for primary fermenetaiton.

Bottling Bucket

By adding a spigot, a pickling tub can be used as a bottling bucket and mash tun.

I bought a spigot, and added that to my pickling tub to make a bottling bucket. To cut the hole for the spigot, I drew a circle on the side of the bucket near the bottom, then used a drill to cut a series of holes just inside the circle. Then I used an X-acto knife to enlarge and smooth out the hole, testing with the spigot until it just fit.

When I picked the height of the whole, I unfortunately choose it too low, so that the weight of the bucket is borne by the spigot. This is a problem when the bucket is full of wort. I have to place a spacer under the bucket to get the spigot off the ground (or turn it upside down) so the weight doesn't break the spigot.

Sparging Bucket

The tub also came with a plastic plate for pressing down on the vegetables. This I used for a false bottom for sparging mashed grains. I drilled a couple hundred holes in this plate. For sparging, I put three bowls upside down inside the bucket, which hold the plate off the bottom and above the spigot. Then the grains go on top of the plate, and the runoff goes through the holes. The problem with this setup is that there is a gap between the plate and the side of the bucket, and so I have to carefully place the grains in the center so not too many fall off.

A better idea is to use the double-bucket technique. Drill holes in the bottom of a second tub of the same size and this can be used to hold the grains inside the bucket with the spigot. Since these buckets can be stacked inside one another, the second bucket doesn't require much additional storage space.

"Wort Chiller"

I used the brewpot-in-the-bathtub method for cooling wort until I found a technique which is almost as effective as using a wort chiller.

I put the shower head, which is on a hose, inside the pickling tub filled with cold water. Then I put the brewpot into the tub. Following that, I turn on the shower with cold water and low pressure so that cold water gradually moves up pass the surface of brewpot, and then overflows out of the pickling tub. The kettle is 13 liters and the pickling tub is 30 liters, so there is enough space for the kettle to float, but not enough for it to tip over.